Increasing the affairs of individuals and enterprises are being conducted in an automated manner over the Internet. Enterprises now engage in selling their products and services over the Internet; individuals also engage in communicating with one another over the Internet; employees may also engage in accessing secure resources of their employers over the Internet, etc.
When employees access secure assets of an enterprise over the Internet, the enterprise has to ensure that the access is secure. One mechanism to achieve this is via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection.
VPN transactions use authentication and encryption techniques for purposes of ensuring that communications are secure. Essentially, a VPN permits insecure communications lines to be used in a secure manner.
However, management of VPN sessions can be a challenging task. This can occur for a variety of reasons.
For example, consider Secure Socket Layer (SSL) VPN users that switch from one network to another network during an already existing SSL VPN session. The users get disconnected during the network switch and the users have to reconnect to the SSL VPN server to access the new network and its protected assets.
Nowadays, it is a very common situation for a VPN user to frequently switch between different networks, such as when the VPN user switches from a Local Area Network (LAN) via a hardwired connection to a wireless connection or vice versa. Here, the user may be physically moving his/her laptop around that necessitates the change in network connection. Also, network resets frequently occur for a variety of reasons, such as a weak or interrupted wireless signal, etc. Still further, network administrators may want to enforce new policies on a network, which requires resetting the network connections. In each of these situations, a user's VPN session is terminated and the user is forced to manually re-authenticate to the different network or to the reset network.
The challenge is to detect the dynamic network change during an existing VPN session or connection and yet still maintain that VPN session as a seamless and uninterrupted connection during the change. With existing technology this cannot be achieved.
Consequently, there is a need for improved techniques for VPN connection management and service.